If you will open back into your
Bible, Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians chapter 2. And while we're open there, I
think sometimes how difficult it is to stand and to, after
you have read and you've studied, how do you preach plainly? And how do you speak plainly?
And how do you go into the Word and read and then tell men what
the Lord has taught you? And one word that I have heard
numerous times or one way is simply this. is that we say to
the people what we're going to say. We tell them what we're
going to say. And then we say it. We turn to the scriptures and
we say it. And we say what we told them
we were going to say. And then we tell them what we
just said. We tell them what we just said. And I'm trying
to use that this morning as my guide as I stand before you.
from this second chapter of Ephesians and there's three things that
if the Lord would help me I want to try to bring out this morning
three things first of all all men without exception all men
by nature are dead and by death by nature men are
not They are not inactive. This word death is not speaking
of being inactive. This word death is speaking of
separation. When the body dies, there is
a separation. It is the separation of the soul
and the spirit from man. And when man died spiritually
in the garden, He was separated from God. He died. And then secondly, this morning,
I want us to say that not only are we all men by nature dead,
but all men by nature are naturally idolaters. Our minds and our
thoughts about who God is by nature is wrong. And then thirdly, I want to tell you this morning
that salvation is of the Lord. And if I can do those three things
this morning, I believe that I will have preached the gospel.
If you will, and with these three things in mind, let's read again
Ephesians chapter 2. hath he quickened who were dead
in trespasses and sins? And is that not what we just
said, that all men by nature are dead? Wherein in time past
you walked according to the course of this world, according to the
prince and the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in
the children of disobedience. among whom also we all had our
conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling
the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature,
we were by nature the children of wrath. And look at this, even
as others. but God, but God. Turn with me now if you would
over to Isaiah chapter 64. All men by nature are dead. All men by nature, are dead. Isaiah 64, if we look at verse
6, that we are all as an unclean thing. Oh, what is an unclean
thing? In the Old Testament, there was
the clean and there was the unclean. The clean could go to the tabernacle. The clean could go to the temple
and worship God. The unclean could not. We are all as an unclean thing. And see what else it says. It
says, our righteousness, our righteousness, The very best
that we can do is as filthy rags. And these rags here, these filthy
rags are talking about bodily fluids, filthy. Our righteousness,
the very best that I can produce, me, the very best in God's sight,
he calls filthy rags. I'll give you an example. Does
the Bible tell us, does the scripture tell us that we are to love our
neighbor? It's not what it says. We are
to love our neighbor as ourselves. And I want to use this as an
example here. Just a few weeks ago, over the last several weeks,
it seems that I've kind of had a target on my back. That everywhere
I go, there's somebody coming up and asking me for money or
asking me for something to eat. And you know what I've done each
time? I've given them some money and I've given them something
to eat. Well, you loved your neighbor. Did I love him like
I love myself? No. And I pray this morning that
when I stand before God, that he does not take those incidents
and bring them up because I will be found guilty. But you fed
your neighbor. I did not love him as myself.
You know that lady, that homeless lady that got into the car with
me, as I drove down the road with her, I hoped nobody would
think that she was my mother. I didn't love her as myself.
I gave her something to eat, but I did not love her as myself. And when I die, if that righteousness
is brought before God, and it is presented as my righteousness,
I will have no hope. Because that righteousness in
God's sight is as filthy rags. And not only is our righteousness
as filthy rags, but our iniquities. We do fade as the leaf, and our
iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. Our iniquities
have separated us. from God. Our iniquities have
put us to where we cannot get to God. He is holy and we are
unholy. And our iniquities have separated
us from God. What a terrible plot. What a
terrible thing that we read here in these words. What a terrible
condition. But notice verse 7. And there
is none that calleth upon thy name. There is none that stirreth
himself up to take hold of thee. Oh, you would think, as bad a
condition as man is in, that you would find one somewhere
who would seek the Lord. You would find one somewhere
who would look after the Lord and seek His righteousness. But
the scripture says there is none that seek the Lord. All iniquity,
all of this unrighteousness, all of this uncleanliness among
man, and none seek Him. All men by nature are dead. If you will turn over to Isaiah
55. In Isaiah 55, let's read verse
7. The scripture does say, Let the
wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts,
and let him return unto the Lord. And he will have mercy upon him,
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not
your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways, saith the Lord.
Let the wicked forsake his way. What is the way of the wicked? Is it murder? Is the way of the
wicked idolatry? Adolatry? No. The way of the wicked is self-righteousness. The way of the wicked is his
own filthy rags. You see, a murderer will go and
hide himself from the law. A self-righteous man will come
before God in his filthy rags. The way of the wicked is a way
of self-righteousness. And secondly, look at this, and
the unrighteous man, let him forsake his way and let the unrighteous
man his thoughts. What are the thoughts of the
unrighteous man? All men are adulterers. Their
thoughts about sin is wrong. Men by nature do not know what
sin is. They think sin is what you do. They do not see that sin is what
we are. They think that sin is what you
touch, what you taste. They think sin is what goes into
the body, not what comes out of the heart. Out of the heart,
Men do not have the right thoughts about God. Men do not know who
God is. The way of the wicked is his
unrighteousness and the thoughts of the unrighteous man are his
thoughts about God and his thoughts about himself. He thinks highly
of himself. He thinks, like we read back
there in Isaiah 64, that he can take his righteousness before
God and that God will accept him. Turn with me over to Genesis
chapter 6. Now let us remember. All men
are dead by nature. All men are adulterers in their
thoughts. Now our setting here in Genesis
chapter 6 is the time of the flood. This is right before the
flood. And Noah is getting ready to prepare the ark. But in Genesis
chapter 6 and in verse 5, let's read 5 through 7, And God saw
the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every
imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that
he had made man on the earth. And it grieved him at his heart.
And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from
the face of the earth, both man and beast and the creeping thing
and the fowl of the air. For it repenteth me that I have
made man." Again, look back at verse 5. And Lord saw that the
wickedness of man was great in the earth. What was this wickedness
that God saw? Was it murder? Was it idolatry? Did you know that David was both
of those things? and that God told David, or David
was told, the Lord hath put away your sin. The wickedness that
was in this earth when God purposed to destroy it was man's own self-righteousness. It was self-righteousness that
bought destruction on this earth. Dad was telling me here about
a week ago, listening to a local broadcast, I think maybe last
weekend, and this man that we know, man that I care for, he
was preaching. Boy, he was preaching hard on
abortion. And he was preaching hard on
sin, on drinking, on homosexuality, on all of these things. And everything he said was probably
right. But he didn't preach the issue.
He didn't preach about our unrighteousness that's in our heart. He did not
preach Christ and Him crucified. You see, this earth, this world
was destroyed because of its unrighteousness, the unrighteousness
and the filthiness that was in man's heart. Let me ask you, the first murder
that occurred, was it not Cain that killed Abel? Why did Cain
kill Abel? Self-righteousness. Cain killed
his brother because of self-righteousness. And then we come up to the time
of the flood, and men go into the ark, and then Noah and his
family comes out of the ark, and the Bible says that the earth
was replenished. And then what's the first thing
that man does when the earth is replenished? He tries to build
him a tower to heaven. Self-righteousness. self-righteousness. And then secondly, do we doubt
this? Do we doubt that it was really
self-righteousness that brought destruction upon this earth?
Well, let me ask you this. Was it self-righteousness of
the Republicans, of the publicans and the harlots who crucified
the Lord of Glory? Was it Pharisees who were self-righteous
that killed the God of glory or was it publicans and harlots? Secondly, every imagination of
the thoughts of the heart was only evil continually. 1st Samuel chapter 16, the Lord
seeth not as man seeth. And something that really caught
my attention in this passage, it says that every imaginative
of the thoughts of his heart, God was looking at their heart. When the Lord looked down and
said, I'm going to destroy man, he was looking at their heart.
1 Samuel 16, The Lord seeth not as man seeth, for man looketh
on the outward appearance. You know what I imagine? If I
went back to the day of Noah, I would not have seen things
as God seen them. Oh, we imagine this vileness,
and I'm sure that the world was full of vileness, and the world
was full of these outward things. But that's not why God destroyed
the earth. He destroyed it because of the wickedness that was in
His heart. the wickedness that was in his
heart. The Lord seeth not as a man seeth, for man looketh
on the outward appearance, but God looketh on the heart. And
what are the thoughts of man? Oh, and this is where we're thinking
of murder, and we're thinking of these other terrible, evil
things. Homosexuality? No, the wickedness
of man's heart, his thoughts. It's his thoughts about God.
It's his thoughts about who God is. His thoughts about God are
wrong, and they're wicked. Naturally, his mind is wicked. Naturally, his mind is evil. Bob read this passage of Scripture,
and I'm going to turn back to Colossians chapter 1, verse 21. And you that were sometimes
alienated, separated from God, and enemies in your mind by wicked
works, We were alienated in our mind by wicked works. Our thoughts
about God were wrong. Now turn with me over to Romans
chapter 8. the natural mind. We're saying that all men by
nature are dead and all men by nature are idolaters. Romans
chapter 8, let's look at verse 6. To be carnally minded, and
this word carnally, I've heard it misused in my life. I've often
heard it used as a worldly, kind of like a sinful way. But this
word carnally, it just means naturally. To be naturally minded,
to be minded like we are being born, as we are born, to be naturally
minded is death. But to be spiritually minded
is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity
against God. Our natural mind, the minds of
those men that God destroyed in the flood, their minds thought
wrong of God. Their minds was evil in their
thoughts toward God. And that is our natural minds
in ourselves. Turn with me over to John chapter
3. Man by nature Be ourselves in
our natural state, we cannot know who God is. Any thoughts
that we have about God are wrong. Look at John chapter 3, in verse
3, Jesus answered and said unto him, and this is our Lord Jesus
Christ telling Nicodemus, Nicodemus has come to him and he said,
well we know you're from God, but we know something about you
And the Lord said to him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except
a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Unless man has been regenerated
by God the Holy Spirit, he cannot perceive spiritual things. unless God first regenerates
his heart. And it's speaking of the kingdom
of God. It's not talking about heaven in the skies or this place. It's talking about the reign
of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's talking about the Lord Jesus
Christ in his glory. Unless a man is born again, he
cannot see those things. He can't understand them and
he can't comprehend them. Look at verse 12. They went on in conversation
and the Lord tells Nicodemus, I have told you earthly things
and you believe not. How shall you believe if I tell
you of heavenly things? It's impossible. It is absolutely
impossible for this religious man, for this man who was raised
in religion all of his life, and this man was raised according
to the Old Testament scripture. This man went to Bible studies. This man studied the scripture.
Yet the Lord tells him, I told you earthly things and you don't
believe. How can you believe if I tell you spiritual things?
Well, most people will say, well, that's
not me. You know, I was raised a Baptist
or I was raised a Methodist. Well, I know that was the Old
Testament. That was before Christ. This
is now. See, we're fundamentalists. We've got this thing down. We've got this thing of salvation
down. You accept Jesus as your personal
savior and you go to Sunday school and you do this and you do that.
That's not talking about me. Ever since I was a boy, I've
believed in Jesus. I've believed in God. No, my
Sunday school teacher was a good Sunday school teacher. Oh, she
was a godly woman. And she taught me the Bible right.
I've known since I was a little boy, I've always liked God. I've
always loved God. You mean there's no enmity between
you and God? You mean to tell me that you've
always loved the God of this Bible? Turn with me to Romans
chapter 9. I'm going to read 10 verses. Beginning in verse 11, for the
children being not yet born, neither having done any good
or any evil, here are two children. Neither one of them have been
born. They've not done anything good or bad. that the purpose,
the purpose of God according to election might stand, not
of works, but of him, of God that calleth. It was said unto
her, the elder Esau shall serve the younger Jacob. As it is written,
Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. What shall we say
then? What shall we say? Oh, there's
no enmity in your heart as I read this. You mean the natural mind
is not stirred up and screams, unfair, unfair. You mean your mind does not change
the image of God? And to a God that is not a God
of election? The God in this Bible is a God
of election. And any man that changes that
has taken the image of God and changed it into something that
God is not, and he's made an idol in his mind. And he's worshiping
a false God. And I wish, I wish my family, and I wish
my friends could see, and I wish they could see their own unrighteousness. And I wish I could see that their
filthy rags, that their free will is destroying them. What shall we say then? Verse
14. Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For he said to Moses, I will
have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So then it's not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.
For the Scripture saith unto Pharaoh, even for this same purpose
have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee, and that
my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath
he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will, he will
hardeneth. Verse 19, Then thou wilt say
unto me, Why dost thou yet find fault? For who hath resisted
his will? Do you not see the enmity that
the Lord shows us in these passages of the natural mind against God
and who God is? But nay, verse 21, nay, but O
man, who art thou that replies against God? Shall the thing
say unto him that formed it, why have you made me thus? Hath
not the potter power over the clay? Is not God the potter? Does not God have the right to
take a clump of clay and make one into honor and one into dishonor? Doesn't that cause enmity in
the natural mind? Doesn't that cause men to hate
this God of the Bible? And doesn't that cause him, because
he has enmity against this God, to go over and form him another
God? I turn back to Ephesians chapter
2. Our third point. Salvation is of the Lord. We have read how all men by nature
are dead. All men by nature are adulterers. But let's read our passage again,
beginning in chapter two, verse one. And you hath he quickened
who were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in time past you
walked according to the course of this world, according to the
prince of the power of the air and the spirit that now worketh
in the children of disobedience. among whom also we had our conversation
in times past in the lust of the flesh, fulfilling the desires
of the flesh and of the mind, and listen to this, and were
by nature the children of wrath, even as others, but God. Oh, I'm so thankful for these
words. But God, we look at our first point that we made, man
by nature, we're dead in sins. But God, we are idolaters. We take the image of God and
we change it. We don't like it. But God, but God, he'll send
the faithful gospel preacher and that preacher will open up
the word. and he'll preach to us Christ
whom crucified, and our eyes will be opened. But God, but
God who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherein he loved
us, his great love, all in his great power he quickened
us. How was we quickened? By his great power, but God.
And how these things come to us? By grace. But God, but God,
God spared not his own son. I was looking here at the great
love of God this last couple weeks I've come across Isaiah
53 and these words have struck me. It pleased the Lord to bruise
him. Why? But God, His love, it pleased. If you think about the cross,
it pleased. That word means delighted. It
delighted the Lord to afflict Him. Why? For God's great love,
wherein He loved us. Now, if you will, I want you
to turn back to Romans, and I'm going to close right here. And I'm going to read you some
precious, precious words. Romans chapter nine, look at
verse 13, as it is written, Jacob have I loved and Esau have I
hated. Do you know what this doesn't
say? It doesn't say Jacob have I hated
and Esau have I hated. There's two men here. Jacob was
even as others. Jacob was just like Esau. He was a supplanter. Did he love
his brother as himself? He didn't, did he? He didn't
even love his neighbor. He didn't even love his brother.
Shouldn't he, Jacob, have went to his brother and said, Jacob,
Esau, now don't do that. You need to value your birthright,
Esau. Esau, I'd love to have it, but
you're my brother. and I'm going to give you something
to eat. But don't ever do that with your birthright, Esau. No,
Jacob didn't do that. He was a supplanter. He was even
as others. Jacob have I loved. Bob have
I loved. Dwight have I loved. God so loved. As in the look down at verse
16, And these are precious words.
So then it's not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth,
but of God that showeth mercy. I'll tell you the difference
between religion and seeing the God of this Bible is that religion
hates these words. But these words are kind of like,
I was thinking this morning, they're kind of like Ballard.
He comes in the door and it's tender. I want to hold him and
smell his little neck. These words are precious to me
like that. See, it's not of him that willeth. What does that
mean? It means that I wasn't willing.
But it's not of him that willeth. God made me willing. That's precious
to me. And it's not of him that runneth.
I tried. I really did. I listened to the
words of the law. I listened to the words of the
church. I run. But if it had been of those that
runneth, I'd have failed. It's not of him that runneth.
That's precious. to the believer that God has
had mercy upon. These words are precious, but
it's of God that showeth mercy. Our God showeth mercy. You know,
as we read over in Isaiah 55, if the wicked would forsake his
way and the unrighteous man his thoughts, God would have mercy.
And I pray that our Lord would open up the eyes of those in
this city and those in our family that they might see their unrighteousness,
that they might say that their righteousness is unrighteousness
and that their thoughts about God is wrong and that they might
come to him and be a mercy beggar. Amen.